Retail and Pro Orders | Paradex

Paradex classifies each order as either a Retail Order or a Pro Order.

This classification is based on how the order is submitted, not on a permanent user profile. It determines speed bumps, rate limits, fee eligibility, queue priority, and access to Retail Price Improvement liquidity.

Overview

	Retail Orders	Pro Orders
Description	Protected orders	Standard API orders
Intended flow	UI and interactive API orders	Standard API orders
Order submission speed bump	300ms	None
Order cancellation speed bump	300ms	None
Rate limit per second	3 orders / sec	800 orders / sec
Rate limit per minute	30 orders / min	17,250 orders / min
Rate limit per hour	300 orders / hr	—
Rate limit per 24 hours	1,000 orders / 24 hrs	—
Retail fee eligibility	✅	-
RPI liquidity access	✅	-
Queue priority	✅ At each price level	-
Default API behavior	-	✅

Retail Orders

Retail Orders are protected orders for UI traders and interactive API users. They are subject to speed bumps and lower rate limits. In return, they qualify for Retail fees, queue priority, and access to RPI liquidity.

Submitting Retail Orders Through the API

An order is classified as a Retail Order when it is submitted through the Paradex web interface or through the API using an interactive JWT token.

To submit a Retail Order through the API, request a JWT token using the token_usage=interactive query parameter:

$ POST /v1/auth?token_usage=interactive

Orders submitted with an interactive token are classified as Retail Orders. Orders submitted without an interactive token are classified as Pro Orders by default.

See the Get JWT endpoint for details.

Retail Rate Limits

Retail Orders are subject to Retail rate limits.

If an account exceeds Retail rate limits, the account automatically switches to Pro Order behavior and loses access to RPI liquidity.

Relationship to Retail Price Improvement

Retail Price Improvement is available only to Retail Orders. RPI orders are posted by liquidity providers and are only eligible to match with Retail Orders. They are not accessible to Pro Orders or standard API flow.

This allows liquidity providers to quote more competitively for Retail Orders because Retail Orders are speed bumped, rate limited, and separated from latency sensitive API flow.

Pro Orders

Pro Orders are standard API orders designed for latency sensitive, programmatic, and high throughput trading. They use higher API rate limits and bypass the 300ms Retail speed bumps. In exchange, Pro Orders use the Pro fee schedule and do not receive Retail specific benefits, including Retail fees, queue priority, and RPI liquidity.

By default, API orders are classified as Pro Orders.

FastFills Discount for Pro Orders

FastFills is designed to incentivize Pro Orders to take passive Retail Order liquidity. When a Pro Order matches with a passive Retail Order, the Pro trader receives a FastFills fee discount. This improves fill speed for Retail Orders while giving API traders a lower execution cost when interacting with passive Retail liquidity.

Qualifying fills are identified with the fastfill flag in fill responses.

Examples

Example	Classification	Reason
Order submitted through the Paradex web interface	Retail Order	UI orders are treated as Retail Orders
API order submitted with a standard JWT token	Pro Order	API orders default to Pro Orders
API order submitted with an interactive JWT token	Retail Order	Interactive JWT orders are treated as Retail Orders
Account exceeds Retail rate limits	Pro Order behavior	Account loses Retail Order treatment and RPI access